While Mom and Dad Were Away
by purple.sunrise
Summary: Set during 3x18, when Hotch and Rossi arrive back at the BAU, Emily fills them in on what happened while they were gone. Oneshot. Hotchniss storyline


**I hope you enjoy this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**.

Hotch and Dave were exhausted as they stepped off the elevator. The case that they had stayed to consult on had been emotionally draining for everyone involved.

Although the prosecutor had estimated Audrey Henson won't spend long in prison, they were unsure what her life would be when she was released having spent the last 20 years being emotionally and psychologically abused by her late husband. Estranged even now from her children due to his machinations.

A couple of days earlier while discussing the case, Dave had made a comment in passing about trying harder in his own marriages if there had been children involved. With the ink barely dry on his divorce papers, Hotch had taken the comment personally. Although they had tried to move past it, there was still an underlying tension between the two men.

Relieved to be back, they entered the bullpen, surprised to find it empty.

The team had finished the stalker case the day before with an arrest by the Silver Springs PD. As far as either of them had heard, the team was going to be working on paperwork and consults in the office that day except for Morgan who was assisting the instructors at the FBI Academy.

As Hotch looked around the bullpen wondering where his team was, Dave nudged him and pointed up to his office. "It looks like your temporary fill in has taken over your office." Dave said with a grin on his face.

Looking up at his office, he too noticed the light was on along with movement at the desk. He rolled his eyes and shook his head at Dave and started towards his office with Dave following closely.

Before he left, he had told Emily that she could use his office. After thanking him, she stated that she would be fine down the bullpen. He started to wonder what changed her mind.

As they reached the door, Hotch could see Emily working at his desk, completely focused on the stack of files in the front of her.

Realizing that she had not noticed their arrival, Hotch and Dave looked at each other before stepping into the office as Hotch said, "is that how serious I look behind that desk?" as Dave asked, "Did you miss us?"

Emily barely raised her eyes to look at them before lowering eyes back to the files as she continued writing as she said humorlessly, "well I see you both decided to grace us with your presence again."

Dave smiled as he said in one of the chairs in front of the desk before looking over to Hotch who had walked into the office and closed the door but was still standing up. As Emily continued working, ignoring the two of them in front of her, Dave asked cheekily, "what brought you up to work in Hotch's office? You angling for the job permanently?"

Emily looked up at him with a look of dread on her face before she said, "God no. As soon as I finish these files, I will happily hand all of them over along with the chair of command back. I'm done."

Both Hotch and Dave chuckled at her response before Dave teased, "It's a lot harder to be in charge of the chaos instead of one of the chief mischief makers, isn't it?" which result in Emily glaring at him. Hotch laughed to himself as he watched the two of them before sitting in the other chair next to Dave.

Hotch was relieved to see the light banter between the two though he didn't think the day would come at least not this quickly after Dave's rough start with the team.

"Well, I'll explain to you how my day was." Emily said and she sat back in the chair and interwound her fingers in front of her.

"My sometimes partner. My supposed friend. A guy who I trust to have my back in the field came in early this morning for the sole purpose of removing all the Splenda from the breakroom before he left for the Academy." Both men grimaced when she said that knowing that Emily needed the two packs of Splenda in her coffee the way Reid needed half a cup of sugar in his.

Wondering what had gotten into Morgan, Hotch asked, "why did he do that? Morgan doesn't use Splenda."

Emily rolled her eyes before answering, "he was getting me back. Some of us went out last night. He lost a bet and didn't like the price.

That and since he wasn't going to be here this morning, he thought it would be 'funny'. So before I even had a cup of coffee I needed to go back to the elevator and go downstairs to the cafeteria to get Splenda since _someone_ locked the drawer with the requisition forms." She looked at Hotch as she said that. He just huffed and shook his head at her. There was no way he was going to leave requisition forms available while he was out of the office. There was no telling what he would find in the bullpen when he returned.

Turning back to look at Dave, she said innocently, "I saw Winnie while I was down there. She asked after you. I may have let it slip that I was getting the Splenda for you." Winnie was a cashier in the cafeteria who they discovered after Dave rejoined the team was in her words 'his biggest fan'.

Hotch chuckled before saying, "Ah one of your fans."

Dave grumbled at him before turning back to Emily, "Dammit Emily. Now she's going to post to her online fan club site that I use that crap."

"I hadn't had my coffee yet. Yell at Morgan." Emily groused as she shrugged then smiled before saying, "besides now I have a whole bunch of extra packets that she snuck to me to hide in my desk."

She took a deep breath before continuing, "so then I have my coffee WITH Splenda when I get back off the elevator. I decide to stop by to see our lovely tech genius to check on my searches she did for us on the stalker case that I needed to do the file. And let's just say, there are things you can't unsee."

There was no way that Emily was going to tell them, especially Hotch, that she had walked in on Garcia and Kevin making out that morning or that she had found Garcia photoshopping pictures of Morgan in chaps earlier in the afternoon when she had returned.

She didn't want to risk the wrath of Penelope.

Emily quickly continued before either of them could ask any more questions, "so I headed back to the bullpen." She paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "I found out later that Reid was taking a break from his paperwork and since Hotch wasn't here, brought out the physics magic." She paused and crossed her arms over her chest and looked at both of them before saying, "and guess what happened?"

Hotch sighed knowing exactly where this was going before saying, "You got hit with a rocket."

Emily pushed her bangs away from her forehead to reveal a red spot on her forehead. Pulling her hands away and letting her hair fall back to her forehead Emily confirmed, "I got hit in the head with a rocket. AGAIN. I've only worked here for 18 months and I've been hit with those damn things how many times now."

"Several." Hotch answered before he sighed and shook his head before hesitantly asking, "what did he do when it happened?"

In all the time that Reid had been doing physics magic with film canisters as rockets, Emily was the only one who had actually been hit by them. There had been a few near misses with others walking through the bullpen which was one of the reason Hotch had initially talked to him about it.

It had been a surprise for everyone the first time Emily had been hit with it. She had quickly shrugged and showed interest in how he got them to work. However that interest had dimmed over time as she continued to be hit with them.

On some of those occasions, she was in the bullpen while other times she wasn't when he started however almost as soon as she would reenter, would inadvertently be hit. With this latest incident, Hotch knew he was going to have to talk to Spencer again before there was any bloodshed between the close friends.

Emily rolled her eyes and sighed before answering, "he ran off to JJ's office after I threatened to shove the canister up his…."

"Emily!" Dave interrupted loudly.

Emily stopped and glared at him, already worked up, before saying, "don't Emily me, Rossi. You weren't here and have never been hit by one. Those flying pieces of plastic hurt." She paused and took a deep breath before answering a bit calmer, "JJ already called me out on threatening him. She also yelled at him and made him go get me coffee and my favorite muffin from Starbucks. Said if we didn't stop she was going to ground both of us. I apologized when he came back."

Despite the confrontation, Emily was relieved to see JJ more… centered and relaxed today. Over the course of the case, Emily had grown concerned about her friend. She hadn't been kidding that JJ had been acting off. Maybe JJ had been right and all she had needed was some sleep however Emily's gut was telling her there was something more going on with her.

Hotch looked at her and asked hesitantly, "I don't know if I should ask but how did the rest of the day go. It sounds like all that happened before 9AM."

Emily nodded before saying, "Before 8AM actually." She paused before continuing, "it got better for a while. JJ went back to her office while Reid and I got started on our paperwork."

She stopped again before crossing her arms over her chest and said, "you forgot to mention that the section chief has a paperwork fetish." She paused as they both looked at her in shock before laughing out loud. Hotch quickly looked over at the door, relieved that it was shut as that was not a comment that Strauss needed to overhear.

As they both calmed back down, Emily said, "I swear when she wasn't over here 'checking' on us she had to be sitting in her office creating yet more paperwork that needs to be completed. Each time I thought I almost had a file done, she came over with yet another document that needed to be completed. I mean how many documents do you really need that have the same seven pieces of information on them." She was gesturing at all the documents on the desk in front of her.

"Is Strauss the reason you came up here?" Hotch asked hoping there wasn't any conflict since there was still some tension between the two women after Milwaukee.

Emily chuckled and shook her head before saying, "No, after lunch Garcia came over to the bullpen. Her and Reid were talking about what costumes they were wearing to Comic-con. They were excited when they heard that I may be interested in attending especially after JJ had shut them down. However Garcia wasn't listening to that I wasn't dressing up if I did go as she was planning out my costume. After a while, I gathered all these files and came up because I was hoping to get it done before you got back."

"Where is everyone now?" Hotch asked because there was still no one in the bullpen.

"Reid went to go hang out with JJ after he handed in his files. Morgan got back a couple of hours ago. He's not quite done his paperwork yet. He said he'll finish it when he gets back." Emily said.

Hotch looked at her confused when he asked, "Where did he go?"

Emily sighed and rolled her eyes before saying, "Garcia dragged him off to watch Days of Our Lives with her a few minutes before you got here."

Dave perked up and she said that as he said, "it's Young and the Restless." while he looked at his watch, said 'oh' and walked out door without another word, walking towards his office. Hotch looks at him confused and Emily rolls her eyes.

"Where did he go?" Hotch asked, not sure what just happened.

"Ever since Indianapolis, when it's not busy, he goes and watches with them. Haven't you noticed that he disappears at the same time everyday when we are in the office?" Emily answered.

Hotch shakes his head.

Emily smiles as she said, "apparently one of Rossi's guilty pleasures when he was on retirement was daytime dramas."

Hotch looked up at her surprised as he said, "not him too."

Morgan and Garcia regularly watched it when the team was in the office. Hotch couldn't see the appeal of the show but didn't say anything as long as they weren't busy and got their work done.

"Yup" Emily said, popping the 'p' before paused before giving him a mischievous look and continuing, "don't worry, he'll be back in a minute."

Hotch took in the look she was giving him and asked, "what did you do?", knowing that whatever it was was going to annoy Dave.

Since he had rejoined the team, the younger members of the team had started to frequently do small pranks to and around Dave when they were in the office. When he had spoken to them about it, the excuse Hotch had heard repeatedly was they were trying to learn more about the real Dave Rossi. Although they had learned a lot about him during the Gaylen case in Indianapolis when he opened up to them, they still pulled pranks on him on occasion.

Emily just smiled before looking down at the file in front of her before saying, "just wait...6...5...4...3...2...1 and then they heard a pop followed by Dave yelling "Prentiss" a couple of seconds later.

"What was that?" Hotch asked as looked over at the door.

Emily looked up at him before looking back down at the files as she said, "you'll see and for the record, it wasn't me."

With that, Dave walked back into the room and glared at her as he yelled, "Emily, what the hell?" as he was brushing pieces of multicolored confetti from his hair and jacket.

Emily looked up at him with a poker face while internally wanting to laugh at his appearance before she deadpanned, "we missed you Dave and wanted to do something to show you when you got back."

Dave suddenly stilled and looked at her stunned for a minute before bellowing, "and making a mess in my office is how you show me that you are happy to see me?"

Emily shook her and smiled before saying, "we didn't make a mess in your office. You did," before she looked back down and starting writing in the file in front of her.

"By walking in the door!?" Dave said heatedly, wondering how it was his fault for just walking into his own office.

Emily looked back up at him and shook her head before saying, "it wasn't me and you should be thanking me."

Dave said irately, "thanking you?! For what? Teaching the others to pick the lock to my office."

A couple of months earlier, Dave had come back from a meeting to discover Emily and Morgan teaching other agents how to pick a lock using his office door. When he confronted them, they had innocently replied that knowing how to pick locks was a necessary skill for field agents to have. Strauss who had walked into the bullpen after him had smirked at his annoyance and walked back out of the bullpen without a word to Morgan and Emily.

"No." Emily said smirking before continuing, "I agreed that we should take that stalker case so today was the only full day we've been in the office since you left." She paused and then said, "and the others wanted to use glitter." She had quickly nix the glitter, telling Garcia that it would be too much for their neat freak colleague.

As she said that, Dave looked at her with wide eyes and a look of horror on his face before he said quietly, "but you stopped them."

Emily nodded before saying, "I stopped them but I'm wondering if I should have since you locked the cabinet with the scotch."

Dave shook his head before looking at he said indignantly, "it's my scotch! And it seems like the rest of you were getting into enough trouble without any added alcohol."

Emily cocked her and thought about it before giving a slight nod, conceding the point. She had just been teasing him about looking for his scotch however it didn't surprise her that he had locked it up.

Just then Rossi stalks out of Hotch's office, muttering in Italian.

"What did he say?" Hotch asked

Emily shook her head before saying, "I'm pretty sure I don't want to know."

With the last needed signature in her piles of paperwork, she closed the file in front of her. Emily wanted to get all the paperwork done for the stalker case knowing if she left without finishing it, even of she planned to complete it the next morning, that Hotch would stay late to finish it for her.

As she did Emily noticed Hotch just staring out the window into the bullpen. Standing up, she walked around the desk and over to close the door that had been left open with Dave's departure. Walking back over, she sat down in the chair next to Hotch.

She sat there and waited for him to look over at her. When he did a couple of minutes later, she looked at him as she quietly asked, "Do you want to talk about it?" She had heard something in his voice the last couple of times she spoke to him on the phone and could now see that something was bothering him.

Emily let out a breath in relief and turned to get comfortable in her chair when he slowly nodded.

####

When Emily walked out of Hotch's office later that afternoon, Hotch was more at peace after they had talked through what had bothered him about Dave's comment.

As she reached her desk, Emily packed her bag and then took her jacket and bag before heading out to the elevator.

As she walked away out of the bullpen, she smiled. She had succeed in annoying Dave, getting several smiles and even a laugh from Hotch, both of which had been rarities as of late as well as she felt less stressed than she did when Hotch and Dave first arrived. For her, it was a win all the way around.

That was until the next morning when she was greeted with an unfortunate long forgotten picture that Garcia had dug up from when she was in high school to counter her argument that she didn't dress in costume.

 **AN: At one point I planned on writing a much longer story. This one shot is a part of the larger story that I did finish. Please let me know what you think. I have more scenes that I can turn into oneshots if there is interest.**


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